I have a quote for some cherry parts, and the shop quoting is down in northern Florida. They say the cherry comes from nearby, not from way up in Pennsylvania.
I thought all the “good” cherry is from up north.
This quote is for a batch of parts, all about 4 feet long, cross section net 3/4″ thick by 2-3/4″ width.
Should I be suspicious of cherry from the southern forests?
Replies
Stinger,
Here in VA, local cherry is often lighter in color than the Penna cherry I've seen. Can't speak to the Fla variety. Other than that it's about the same. Good, in my mind would refer more to grade of lumber, than where it grew.
Ray Pine
Cherry. Don't confuse color with quality. Good stable cherry is becoming very difficult to find. There's just tons of low quality - fast growth cherry floating around at high prices after the big "cherry lovers" decade of the 90's. Just a thought: the colder the area that the cherry grows, the denser the wood. It just grows more slowly. In my experience with maple which I use as a substitute for cherry, I've found some of the warm climate maple here in NC to be inferior to the cold climate stuff. If I was doing an 18th century reproduction, I'd look at some high quality stuff. If I was building face frames for kitchen cabinets, I'd use the Florida stuff if it looked good. Good Luck DO
I'm not so sure about slow growing cherry being denser. Cherry is diffuse porous. I believe the pores are about the same size and distribution regardless of growth rate. Some woods are denser from slower growth - for example softwoods where the early wood is significantly lighter/softer than the latewood. Oak is actually denser if it grows fast - faster growing oak has a higher ratio of latewood (dense) to earlywood (porous). On the other hand, certainly I've seen differences in cherry from different parts of the country.I'm not an expert on wood structure, but my source for information of this type is usually Bruce Hoadley's book "Understanding Wood."
Thanks for the reply. Wood and density. I'm not Mr Hoadley by any stretch but after working sugar maple and cherry for a long time, I've found the locations and temperature have a noticeable effect on the wood I've used. You mention oak and this raises another interesting question. Faster growth and denser wood. In the course of building windsor chairs and small rowboat ribs, I have to rive. shape and steam oak and ash to bend parts I need to complete the project. Traveling between NH and NC I have picked up wood from both locations over a 25 year period and found a marked difference. To give you one example: I can put a 1"x1"x60" long piece of red oak felled in the piedmont area(central NC) in a bucket of water and blow bubbles effortlessly. I have done it with northern red oak from time to time with a bunch more effort. While doing some post and beam work years ago, we used red oak from Minnesota and oak from Georgia-- there was a difference. I don't know if this is denser wood but the size of the holes on the end grain were clearly bigger on the wood from southern areas. So... ?? Can't compare the maple in the 2 locations as it just doesn't grow in the NC area. In the final analysis, I don't turn down cherry because of its growth origin. For me, good cherry is tougher to find than good walnut. So.. if you find any wide boards from a cherry tree without lots of sapwood,cupping and twists, send me a message. Thanks DO
"So.. if you find any wide boards from a cherry tree without lots of sapwood,cupping and twists, send me a message."
Better than sending you a message, I'll send you pictures of what I made from such a find :)
Stinger, My shop is located in Georgia and I have harvested cherry locally. Believe me when I
tell you that southern grown cherry is nothing like the cherry from Pennsylvania. I would say
that there is not a lot of density difference but the grain structure that results from the faster
growth rate makes a lot of difference in the appearance of the material. The southern grown material is not as stable and does not come thru the drying process very well at all. I would
say that of the local material that I harvested less than 50% came thru the drying process without significant degradation. I thought that maybe my process was flawed but when I talked to local people that worked in the hardwood lumber drying process on a daily basis
they informed me that the yield that I experienced was the norm.
I just did a project for a client that wanted a piece done in cherry, I ordered the material from
a supplier in Pennsylvania. In short, personally I would not trust the southern cherry. However walnut from the southeastern part of the U.S. is a whole different story. It is some of the most varied grained and interesting walnut that you will see anywhere.
Ronaway
I own a sawmill in south carolina and I have bought some cherry from the gulf coast part of florida in the past , it is drasticly different than what we have. The cherry we have is not as dark and has black streaks all through it some people like the look but you cant mix it with the other. And the reason I bought the cherry from the gulf part of florida is it looks very close to northern cherry and every body that buys it loves it and always comes back for more. The only people who buy my local cherry are the ones looking for something that will look rustic. Hope this helps .
The difference I find with southern cherry vs. northern cherry is the crispness of the grain lines. The best northern cherry grows on the western slopes of the mountains in the north because they have the shortest growth season, sunlight, etc.. As a result, the grain is very crisp and sharp. The trees growth slow. In the south with a hotter climate, the growth season is very long. Therefore, the grain lines are muddled. I am not sure grain lines is the correct description, but you will see what I mean. I have attached pictures of a project I made with both northern and southern cherry so you can see the difference. The drawer fronts are northern cherry and the right side is cherry from the south. I should have gone and gotten another piece of good cherry for this project in my opinion, but I was ready to be finshed!
Rusty
whoops! Forgot to add the pictures.
Rusty
Nice collection there!
Hi beretta,
I was just looking at your pictures of the tool rack.....very very nice.I am thinking of making a tool rack simular to the one you have made only out of mahogahny with the planes stored vertically.Anyway I have just found out how to edit pictures to a smaller size so here you go.By the way I have never worked cherry, just out of interest how does it work.
Nice Work,
Sawdust.
'It's not a mistake It's a design feature'
I'll tell you about cherry if you will tell me how you made that picture look like that! Good job with the picture. Do you have to reduce or resize the picture before you post it (I'm guessing you do)? Is it something your doing in Knots or are you using some type of picture program?
Cherry is a very, easily to work with, hardwood. I consider it to be very stable. It cuts nicely without alot of tearout. It's fairly easy to hand cut dovetails in. Easy ti route, etc. In general, It would usually be a slightly more open grain than most mahogany I think. I good website to look at finished cherry pieces is christain Becksvoort's website. He uses only cherry I think, along with various white woods for the unshown work like drawer runners, drawer sides, backs, and bottoms. If you are going to make a nice piece, say something for your home, then you want to find cherry from the northeast. And that would be kind of from West Virgina on up. As I understand it from my work clients in the hardwood lumber industry, the good cherry from up north that grows on the western mountain slopes have shorter growing seasons and shorter daylight periods on the western side of the mountains, so consequently, their grain will develop very tight and precise. If you get cherry from the southern region were the growing seasons are longer and days are longer, the grain is not so good. My plane storage rack is a good example. The end piece is southern grown cherry and you can see how wide the grain pattern can be. That's usually considered to be "not good or pretty" The board I used across the front for the drawers is a piece of northern cherry and has a very good grain pattern.
The other end of the rack opposite of the bad piece you see is also a very good piece of cherry and was suppose to be on the exposed end to show. Turned out that I had to mount the rack on a different wall so the good end is covered up by the dust collector piping and the bad piece is what you see! But it is in the shop!
Please excuse any grammer errors. I didn't check too closely. Now, about the picture sizing....
Rusty
Hello beretta,
I had a day off school today because I am ill, and I feel that I have learned something a lot more useful than something like silmultaneous equations...Thank you.Anyway, on to the pictures, I used a program called irfan view.What I did was copy the picture and paste it into irfan view and then resize it by clicking on image and then clicking on Resize/resample... you can then type in the dimensions you want the picture to be at, but be careful because if you resize it too much it will go blurry.Hope this helps,
P.S.I must say that all credit goes to MADDOG3
Good Luck,
Sawdust.
'It's not a mistake It's a design feature'
I just saw this thread about cherry and thought I would peek in, as I have lots of wild cherry growing here ....unfortunately most of it is used as firewood.. but what I save is easy to work with , I love the smell.... and it is a beautiful wood..
..hope you get the chance to work with it...perhaps a variation of your clock?? nice job on the picture BTW, after looking at your tool cupboard , I can say that your WW skills certainly exceed mine, and its been awhile since I was in the 9th grade.... if you have an electrical question, I'm better at thatThank you for the credit sawdust.....glad to help anytime.
_________________________________________________edited for the followingwhooops I made a made the mistake of not reading the whole thread....my apologies ,........ Sawdust, I Ithought the tool rack was yours
Edited 2/17/2006 5:08 pm by maddog3
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